The First Cambridge Press in Its European Setting

E. P. GOLDSCHMIDT was a bookseller who was much more interested in
reading and studying the books he sold than in the actual profit he made
from their sale. His interest in books started in his early Cambridge days, 1905-9, and until the end of the twenties it was mainly concentrated
on incunabula, bookbindings and medieval authors. His researches in
early printing will be found spread through the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. His interest in bookbindings produced his first large work, Gothic
and Renaissance Bookbindings ( London, Benn, 1928), still one of the standard works on the subject.

During the last thirty years he became more and more interested in
humanists, the printing of their books, and the gradual spread of their
ideas and influence throughout the continent of Europe. References to Erasmus and his circle, and Lucian of Samosata and his influence on the
humanists, will be found on almost every one of the following pages.

Mediaeval Texts and their first Appearance in Print (his favourite work) was
published by the Bibliographical Society in 1943. Three lectures on type,
ornament and illustration, given at a number of Institutions in the U.S.A.
and in this country, were published by the Cambridge University Press in 1950 under the title, The Printed Book of the Renaissance.

When in May 1952 he was elected Sandars Reader in Bibliography for 1953, he set aside all other work and gathered together his many notes
on the history of humanism and printing after 1500. Unfortunately his
health was already bad, and it soon became clear that he would be unable
to deliver the lectures in person. It was, in fact, uncertain whether he
would be able to complete them at all. With great determination, however, he refused to give in to his increasing physical weakness, and passed
and corrected the final proofs of the text three days before his death last
February. Had he been in better health and with more time at his disposal, it
is probable that he would have made a number of enlargements and changes.
It was decided, however, to publish the work as he left it, as a useful basis
for the further study of this interesting period in European history, and
I have had the satisfaction of seeing his proofs through to publication.

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.